Telephony, design, and HCS dial plan overview
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The dial plan model is a key component of Automate's architecture and provisioning workflow. This 
guide describes the relevant architectural elements, the required service configuration, and how the 
dial plan model may be customized to meet varying infrastructure requirements and customized service 
types. 

Automate provides automation and
standardization to Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) and other elements,  
such as IOS devices, and Cisco Unity Connection (CUC). Additionally, bulk 
loaders can be used to provision and onboard customers. This routing architecture and the 
associated element configuration meet Automate's configurable dial plan model.

.. note:: 

   The dial plan model may be referred to as either *HCS Dial Plan Model*, *HCS Dial Plan*, 
   *Dial Plan Model*, or *Dial Plan*.

   HCS dial plan tools are provided only in the Automate Provider deployment. 

The dial plan model intends to create a pre-integrated baseline configuration of UCM 
applications, which can then be integrated into the platform and the 
service provider infrastructure with minimal effort. 

The dial plan model configures both end-customer equipment, such as UCM or on-premise routers, 
as well as the interaction with aggregation layers, using systems like Cisco Session Management
Edition, or Session Border Controller (SBC). 

.. note:: 
   
   While standard configurations are provided, service providers must customize parts of the dial 
   plan model for a particular environment.

For end-customers, the dial plan model supports many corporate dialing schemes, and 
includes a standardized model for handling intra-site, inter-site, and PSTN calls, typically using 
a *site + extension* methodology. Additionally, it covers advanced routing requirements 
of elements such as central versus local breakout for PSTN calls, and handles 
different numbering requirements across multiple countries.

Automate's dial plan model provides a definition of standard telephony services that 
abstract UCM configurations into simpler choices that correspond to the feature 
plans that service providers want to offer. For example, the partitions, calling
search spaces (CSS), and translation patterns are predefined based on a choice of 
simple outbound, inbound, call forwarding, and time of day settings. These settings are exposed 
as service types in Automate, and are combined into feature packages and templates 
that define user or lines telephony services.